


aksaranyasa

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Jodhaa Akbar canon fics [19]
Category: Jodhaa-Akbar (2008)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26394271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: A second collection of Jodhaa Akbar Tumblr fills, written for each letter of the alphabet.(First onehere).
Relationships: Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar/Mariam-uz-Zamani | Jodhaa Bai, Mariam-uz-Zamani | Jodhaa Bai & Sujamal (b.c.1533)
Series: Jodhaa Akbar canon fics [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/978960
Comments: 30
Kudos: 14





	1. B for Babies (Jodhaa & Jalal)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nifflers_and_Crookshanks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nifflers_and_Crookshanks/gifts), [heyoh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyoh/gifts), [GlyphArchive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlyphArchive/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For @mariaasofiaa on Tumblr.

Jodhaa’s long-awaited son already boasts an impressive head of hair, clearly inherited from his father. But Salim has her eyes, and as he grows and his features fill out, his smile calls to mind the rare ones that would spread across Bhai-sa’s face, like a banner unfurling.


	2. C for Child (Hamida)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For @irrelephant-elephant on Tumblr/Niffles-and-Crookshanks. Warnings for child marriage.

Hamida is fourteen when she marries Humayun, almost twenty years her senior, and not yet sixteen when she bears his son. She would have rather married his youngest brother, Hindal, who was more of an age with her, but the Emperor’s wife Dildar Begum had been insistent. She feels herself a child in so many ways, subject to the machinations of those around her.

Only this she had been able to secure for herself: that her husband not be too taller than her.

_ I shall marry someone; but he shall be a man whose collar my hand can touch, and not one whose skirt it does not reach. _

Her sister-in-law Gulbadan laughs, when Hamida relates it to her years later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Tumblr tags:
> 
> #hamida was indeed in love with humayun’s brother hindal before she was persuaded to marry jalal’s father instead #gulbadan begum recorded this in her humayun-nama and interviewed many women for it including hamida #that’s where the quote is from


	3. L for Legacy (Sujamal)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For hellabaloo/@historiograph.

Jodhaa insists on making the most ostentatious  _ rakhis _ she can for Bhai-sa, even though he begs her not to do so. She does not understand why; he is her brother, just as Bhagwant Das is, and even more so. Later, in private, he points out how anxious her parents always look when she favors him so, and asks for her to make simple  _ rakhis _ for him from now on.

Years later, a Hindu in a Muslim court, she comprehends something of how Sujamal felt. She refuses to go anywhere without a temple of her faith, even in this foreign land. But when Ni’mat waxes lyrical about the building prowess of the Mughals, Jodhaa hastens to add, “Not a grand one. A small temple is what I desire.”

Her pride in her devotion to Lord Krishna does not mean she is foolish enough to flaunt it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits to Avani/@avani008 for the headcanon about Sujamal and Jodhaa's _rakhis! ___


	4. N for Neighbor (Maham Anga)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For GlyphArchive/@glyphenthusiast.

She is cold, cold, colder than the lonely wind when Jalal banishes her.

She took an arrow on the chest for him, did not breathe so much as a word of reproach over Adham, and dedicated every hour to his future. In the end, it was all for naught.

Maham Anga turns to look at the Dowager Empress, whether to beseech her or to curse her. Hamida was herself a child when she bore Jalal, making it easy for Maham Anga to insinuate herself between Empress and heir. It was especially fortuitous that Maryam Makani was often away on imperial business with her husband. She had thought that Jodhaa would be no different, but apparently the Rajput princess has more allies than Maham Anga suspected.

Hamida has won their silent war, waged over years. But she does not gloat, instead merely lowering her eyes. Maham Anga cannot think what to make of it, and she leaves.

Jalal never sees her again. Only on her sickbed does he come to her one last time, whispering words of forgiveness and promises that she shall be buried next to Adham. 

Death, it seems, reunited her with both her sons. Maham Anga closes her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr tags:
> 
> in research for this i found out that, Maham Anga and Adham Khan were indeed buried together in an opulent tomb, but it contained an octagonal design which isn’t there in any other mughal building of the era, perhaps suggesting that akbar saw them as traitors, in the 1800s the british removed the graves so they could live in the mausoleum, -.- , eventually adham’s grave was restored, but maham anga’s body has never been put back


	5. P for Pyaar (Jodhaa)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anonymous on Tumblr.

In the petulance of childhood, Sukanya used to be resentful that Jodhaa, as the eldest daughter, would have the grandest wedding. Jodhaa’s  _ bidaai _ was grand indeed, both because she was the firstborn girl of the house and also because she was becoming an Empress -- perhaps the highest title any Rajput princess would ever claim. But all of Amer had wept when Jodhaa left for Agra, for it seemed as though they were sending her to walk into the maws of a beast. 

Sukanya had lost any desire for an opulent wedding that day, and when the gods settled her matrimonial fate on Dwangarh, a small Rajput kingdom half a day’s ride from Amer, she had the good sense to thank them. Since then, preparations for her own marriage have increasingly occupied her mind, and she had half-forgotten Jodhaa’s plight, to her shame.

But now Jodhaa has returned, quite suddenly for reasons no one will properly explain. Sukanya had thought she would be happy, but Jodhaa’s face is drawn and her few smiles practiced. Her elder sister’s advice on her upcoming marriage is similarly muted: “In your new home, keep no secrets from your husband. Leave nothing incriminating in your possessions. Never venture outside the palace without his knowledge.”

The  _ Didi _ she knew was forthright and bold; what in Agra had taught her such sour mistrust? Sukanya does not ask. As a wife, Jodhaa had evidently been entitled to no secrets; as a sister, she should be allowed those she can keep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sukanya was the historical Jodhaa's younger sister, about four years younger.


End file.
